My Tour of the Blacksword Gun Facility

Recently a friend of mine (and past guest of Gears, Guns, and Grub) Chris Grove told me about an incredible gift from his wife. She had purchased him a Blacksword Scythe 5.56 rifle! Chris also mentioned that Blacksword was a local company here in the Knoxville area, which immediately caught my attention. So I jumped onto the old Googles and my search began.

Pouring over their website at Blacksword.us I found myself drooling over their three primary models : Rapier, Scythe, and the Cutlas. The quality is clearly evident in the pictures and descriptions, but I wanted to see if for myself. So I reached out to see if there would be any possibility that I could swing by and check out their operation first hand. I got a response immediately from Zack welcoming me with an invite. Seeing for myself how these firearms are created is nothing short of witnessing true craftsmanship. Each rifle is assembled by hand and thoroughly tested before being shipped out. No mass production what so ever, just simple attention to detail and pride in their work. From mild to wild each armorer can create the rifle of your dreams including customized cerakoting done on sight. But all of this artisanship would be worth nothing if their products didn’t perform as intended. That’s when Zack walked me over to a silhouette target hanging on the wall with what looked to be a single headshot directly in the center of the forehead. What I didn’t realize however was that this wasn’t a single hole at all. During some testing the target was moved to a distance of two hundred yards, and a skilled sharpshooter was making some shots. At that distance this hole was made with not one, but 10 rounds……all through the same hole!!!! See for yourself – But take a closer look towards the bottom of the page. You see that little 8??? And did you notice the hole made in the bottom circle of the number? Yep – that was made by the same shooter at the same distance ! I’d say they are pretty accurate! Durability doesn’t seem to be an issue either as Zack was showing me test guns that had shot over 40k rounds. Unreal!!!

But my tour didn’t end there. To my complete surprise Zack brought me out to the back of the shop and offered me a chance to shoot each of their models. It was like someone handing over the keys to their Ferrari and telling you to hammer it. Virtually no recoil and amazing accuracy – even in the hands of a novice.

Speaking of novice, a little training never hurt anyone. Blacksword has partnered with Global Consulting Group (GCG) to facilitate various training programs. Currently they hold classes for tactical rifles, designated marksmanship (sniper), and have recently added a pistol course as well. In addition to those, there is also a class for learning to assemble and repair AR style rifles. With this course you will walk away as a certified Blacksword armorer, and if you are purchasing one of their rifles you have the opportunity to build your own!

I really can’t say enough about my experience at the Blacksword facility. If you are in the market for a fine precision firearm you owe it to yourself to check them out. Their website lists several locations where their guns can be found, or if a shop isn’t an option for you, one can be customized to your spec and be sent to your FFL of choice. If you happen to be in the Knoxville area on March 31 you can also swing by SIA firearms to meet the Blacksword team and check out their products, then shoot over to Windrock on April 1st to fire some test shots yourself!

I want to thank everyone at Blacksword for being so generous with their time and equipment. Be sure to scroll down and check out the pics from my visit, and then head over to their online sites to check out more!